\Dis`con*tin"u*ance\, n.
1. The act of discontinuing, or the state of being
discontinued; want of continued connection or continuity;
breaking off; cessation; interruption; as, a
discontinuance of conversation or intercourse;
discontinuance of a highway or of travel.
2. (Law)
(a) A breaking off or interruption of an estate, which
happened when an alienation was made by a tenant in
tail, or other tenant, seized in right of another, of
a larger estate than the tenant was entitled to,
whereby the party ousted or injured was driven to his
real action, and could not enter. This effect of such
alienation is now obviated by statute in both England
and the United States.
(b) The termination of an action in practice by the
voluntary act of the plaintiff; an entry on the record
that the plaintiff discontinues his action.
(c) That technical interruption of the proceedings in
pleading in an action, which follows where a defendant
does not answer the whole of the plaintiff's
declaration, and the plaintiff omits to take judgment
for the part unanswered. --Wharton's Law Dict.
Burrill.
Syn: Cessation; intermission; discontinuation; separation;
disunion; disjunction; disruption; break.